Mems. maxims, and memoirs / by William Wadd.

Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mems. maxims, and memoirs / by William Wadd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    at this period a commission from the king to dis- cover the Elii'ir of Life,'' which was to cure all wounds and diseases, and to prolong human existence. Licences for composing the Elixir of Life, and for trcmsubstai2tiating (for such was the term) meaner metals into pure gold and silver, were now become common. Besides John Fauceby,—John Kirkeby, and John Rayny appeared in 1456; and some years afterwards, Rymer, vol. ii. p. 347, produces a per- mission to three other persons, to engage in the same enterprize. Although these licences did not produce that infallible panacea of human infirmities, they were the means of discovering unknown qualities and modifications in the elements of nature. The ex- periments of Van Helmont led to an analysis of that complex fluid the air, and his gas sylvestre contains the first recorded notice of elastic vapours in aerial forms.